Be here shortly. As some people may know, a 7. 2 magnitude earthquake off the coast of alaska impacting kodiak and parts of the Pacific Northwest with tsunami warnings were issued for activities that were expected and those warnings for tsunami waves have been recalled but no doubt, dealing with lots of things this morning related to that and other issues. So i want to thank the witnesses, chairman mcintyre and mr. Walker for being here and many of the staff people that are glad w you are back in operation. We look forward to hearing from all of the witnesses on the subject of the reliability of the grid and its performance. Last year the secretary and staff reviewed the likability in regards of the changing mix and i was relieved when i saw the report in august which i thought was balanced. It distinguished between the reliability and resilience and described the emerging techniques to integrate more Renewable Resources including synthetic and frequency response and also recommended they adopt resilience backtracks still needed to be developed. Unfortunately, when the secretary filed his report at the proposal i was a little more alarmed. It ignored the conclusion of the departments own staff. It was a transparent attempt to prop up the favorite kinds of energy which are getting outpaced in the marketplace. There were many problems with the proposal endeavor to find resilience, a single attribute of power plans and fuel stored onsite and elevated among all other factors. It promised full recovery for coal in some states have chosen a year ago but the biggest problem is that it would hit consumers with billions of dollars of additional added cost to multiple independent assessments. Bailing out coal plants justice and bad policy, it was breathtaking on the consumers pocketbooks. The market monitor found that the secretarys proposal could nearly double the cost of wholesale energy and the largest electricitof the largestelectrio applaud the chair man and the whole commission for unanimously rejecting the secretarys proposal. At the heart of the rejection i believe the consumers, the commission reviewed the federal power act just as a reasonable standard for electricity rates and found the secretary havent met the burden in proving that they are unjust and unreasonable. Consumers couldnt have asked for a better defense giving some of the troubling stories about the interest lobbying the department, its never been more important to maintain its tradition of independence. I hope the secretarys proposal has not given resilience a bad name. The difference between the recovery from hurricanes in florida and texas versus puerto rico shows that it does affect the lives and quality and it deserves more attention so i am pleased we have allison come to think testifying along with others that wrote an excellent report last summer on the grid brazilians and i would like to submit a report fo the report fe record. It also has concrete recommendations to the department of energy that i hope we can explore today so again, thank you to all the witnesses for being here today and calling the hearing. My apologies to the witnesses and Committee Members who had a busy morning in alaska this morning so i appreciate more than ever the value of things like the earthquake and tsunami Early Warning system. Its important that they are there and they were actually operating now that the government is that order. Last week i outlined the agenda of the 12 maintain a focus on legislation nomination oversight which is a critical part of the goal. We are obligated t to examine te performance of agencies under the jurisdiction and today is an opportunity to gauge whether it is helping or hindering improvements in Energy System performance. While it may not have been up to the alaska standards, those endured along the eastern seaboard was quite notable over the holidays and into the new year. Among the worst of it occurred over on the shoulders of a holiday period and we didnt reach the extremes felt into a vortex. The vortex. We did experience a socalled cyclone event. The bomb cyclone is a storm which the Pressure Drops in the short period of time. These have been relatively often up the coast but this is a record breaker with the largest Pressure Drop in the 20 period. Its been since at least 2010 about how the changes in the nations electric grid in the primary electricity sources are stressing system reliability. They noticed the proposed rulemaking and the recent order is response focused on the same issues. Following the vortex we hold a similar hearing to examine challenges to the system. I said then that we need to redouble and continuously improve the reliability and security. I am pleased to say the testimony shows that there were many Lessons Learned from that extreme weather event. There now appears to be improved coordination between the electric and gas systems. They have reformed the market rules and improved Business Practices and updated its approaches. That is all good news. The bad news is that w that wet addressed the more difficult fundamental challenges for electric and Gas Infrastructure. For example, Gas Pipelines remain too constrained. Broad policy changes are not sufficiently taking into account increasing risks that in the future years system operators may have to turn to intentional Service Interruptions to manage certain. One of the witnesses will speak about the situation in new england which is in some respect is as a harbinger of challenge in other parts of the nation. We must ensure that the natural gas supply is a boo a boom to ts activity can be reliably delivered to a changing marketplace. At this time it is clear what the reliability and Economic Impact will be on the grid on the resources are less diverse over time as they slowed it clear to continue to require. Meeting all the challenges. It should be a shared priority. After all promoting competition has been a tenant of the policy that enjoyed wide bipartisan support for more than two decades and should remain so. This morning we will hear from leaders of two agencies under the jurisdiction and we will hear from the heads of three regulated entities with regulatory response of these cut north American Electricity Reliability Corporation and regional transmission organizations we also have the National Academies of science engineering and medicine with us so i welcome each of you to the committee this morning and look forward to your testimony. I would ask that you try to limit your testimony to about five minutes. Your full statements will be included as part of the record. This morning we are joined by the honorable Kevin Mcintyre was the chairman owhowas the chairml Regulatory Commission its the first time youve appeared before the committee in your capacity as chair man and we welcome you. The honorable bruce walker is also with us and the assistant secretary for the office of electricity and delivery and Energy Reliability of the u. S. Doe. Good to see you again. Mr. Charles as the interim president and ceo for the north American Electric reliability corporation. Allison is the president of and senator cantwell mentioned your contribution. Mr. Andrew is the president and ceo for the interconnection. Welcome, and mr. Gordon really i hope im saying that right, the president and ceo of iso new england welcome to each of you and if you would like to begin with your comments this morning. Senator, chairman, members of the kennedy, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the performance of the electric system during the recent weather events. I am honored to serve as the chairman. The Commission Takes seriously the responsibilities congress has entrusted to us concerning the reliability. We are still receiving and reviewing the data related to the performance of the power system. Based on what we know today, it appears notwithstanding the stress and several regions, overall the book for system performed relatively well under challenging circumstances. Looking forward we must both learn from this experience and remain vigilant with respect to challenges for reliability and resistance of the bulk power system. The performance of the power system during the 2014 winter event now commonly known as the polar vortex data provide context for understanding the performance of the bulk power system under the more recent events of the past month. During the 2014 vortex much of the u. S. Experienced extreme cold weather. The challenges presented by these conditions and high electric demand were compounded by unplanned generator shutdowns of the various fuel types. These combined circumstances tested the grid reliability and Power Supplies and contributed to the high electricity crisis. Drawing on that experience, ferc took numerous actions to address the reliability and performance issues for example the commission directed regional transmission organizations and independent system operators to report on fuel assurance issues and the Commission Revised its regulations to enhance coordination between the natural gas and electric industries in light of the increasing use of natural gas as fuel for the electric generation. For certain regions the Commission Approved capacity market reforms intended to increase financial incentives for improved resource performance and to penalize them on performance or poor performance. The Commission Also approved temporary winter reliability programs in new england. Turning to the Winter Weather events of the past month, its useful to consider the impact of the recent events on the professional service and associated cost of the service. Importantly, there were no significant customer outages that resulted from the billions of the system generators were transmission lines. While there were no significant reliability problems during the recent cold weather event, wholesale Energy Prices were high. Higher wholesale Energy Prices accurately reflect fuel cost instrument system conditions that can be beneficial sending important signals that drive operational and Investment Decisions for both utilities and consumers. We also recognize that the Energy Prices are ultimately borne by retail customers. And so the commission has attempted to the potential behavior that takes advantage of extreme weather events. Just as the commission drew lessons from the polar vortex in 2014 and applied them in ways for this reason the cold weather events we will examine these more recent events very carefully and seek to learn from them. I would like to emphasize a few points the commission made on the issue of recently used more generally. On january 8 the commission responded to the proposed rule on the grid reliability of resistance processing submitted by the secretary of energy. And we initiated a new proceeding to further explore the reselling of fish is beginning with the rto was. As we stated in the order, we appreciate the secretary reinforcing the importance of the resilience of the bulk power system as an issue that warrants further attention and prompt attention. The goal of the new proceeding for first to develop a common understanding among the commission and industry and others as to what resilience of the bulk power system actually means it requires. Second, to understand how each assesses resilience within its geographical footprint and third to use the information to evaluate whether the additional action regarding resilience is appropriate at this time. The commission directed each to submit within 60 days of the order with specific information regarding resilience of the bulk power system within those respective regions and we invite other interested entities to file comments within 30 days after they said that their comments. We expect to review the additional material and promptly decide whether the connection is warranted. In our january the eighth order, the Commission Also recognizes the concept of resilience necessarily involves issues that extend beyond our Commission Statistics and such as Distribution System reliability and modernization. For that reason we encourage them to other interested entities to engage with the state regulators and other stakeholders to address the distribution level more broadly. I assure you that the reliability and resilience of the power system will remain a priority. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you, chairman mcintyre. Secretary walker, welcome. Chairman murkowski, Ranking Member at distinguished thinkers of the committee thank you for the opportunity to discuss the issue of resilience and the recent cold weather. Just two months ago i testified for the Committee Regarding the Response Recovery efforts in puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands and the administration were supportive of the restoration. The topic of the hearing is timely. The reliability of the sector are top priority is in a major focus of the department of energy in fact the first step he requested by the secretary was the Stanford Report electricity markets reliability. They examined the electric markets and impact on the grid reliability as it relates to wholesale Energy Capacity markets with specific attributes of the connection between regulatory burdens and the base load power plants. Many of the findings contained in the study report out of the recent Severe Weather events across the nation. The last several months have been quite demanding from an extremely active Hurricane Season to the deep challenge of tested at the reliability of the Energy Infrastructure in different ways. During the recent cold snap from late december 2017 to early january, the northeast record of temperature fo for second debate for several days but the customer outages over this weather event was the continued reliance on the base Load Generation and the Diverse Energy portfolio without action that recognizes the Reliability Services provided by strategically diversified generational portfolios we cannot guarantee the resilience of the grid. The integrity is maintained by an abundant and diverse supply especially with onsite fuel capabilities. However the question is whether or not it will be here tomorrow. Resilience for the infrastructure has become more important than ever as major parts of the economy are not totally dependent on electricity and even momentary disruptions can result in Major Economic losses at the same time we are in the early stages of transformation where the supply system with the process of change would continue for many years keeping the lights on during the transformation would require unprecedented collaboration among many parties. We are committed to working with ferc and the originals to achieve this mission. Stakeholders are facing multiple connective tissues with growing amounts of Energy Resources, participation, dynamic markets, increasing cybersecurity and physical threat and the advent of the internet of things for granted that sustains this must be designed to ensure the resilience over the next. Today in the marketplace rather than the engineering principles focused on maintaining the resilient system iresilience sye design of the system however, it is clear we need an indepth understanding of the resilience of the related infrastructure in order to know how to best modify existing market structures or and or build new standards into the system. To that end, i propose that the undertaking Detailed Analysis that integrates into a single north american Energy Infrastructure model for the ongoing resilience Planning Efforts of the local, state and regional levels including between canada and mexico. And also any gaps and any inconsistencies with various efforts at the same levels. I understand we currently cannot find these tasks so i take the opportunity to make my position clear. I believe that building this model should be the top priority for the doe office of electricity Energy Reliability over the coming years as does the leadership of the department of energy. To address challenges both at the recent cold snap as well as the systemic Energy Infrastructure issues, it is critical for us to be proactive and cultivate an ecosystem of resilience, the network producers, distributors, regulators, vendors and Public Partners from acting together into strength and ability to repair, responding to recover. Dod continues to partner with federal agencies, state, local governments, and other stakeholders to identify threats, to develop indepth strategies to mitigate the threats and rapidly respond to any distraction. Resilience isnt a onetime activity, but they have it. It is something that cannot be done in 24 or 48 hours before an event. Many of you with little or no notice. Resilience is a converging Energy Infrastructure with longterm planning in mind understandi